"The Big Bounce"
*
PG-13, 88 m Starring Morgan Freeman, Owen Wilson, Sara Foster, Charlie Sheen, Vinnie Jones and Gary Sinise. Directed by George Armitage. Opens tomorrow.
"The Big Bounce" combines the awesome cinematic power of a seasoned acting veteran (Morgan Freeman), a current Hollywood heartthrob (Owen Wilson) and a new piece of female eye candy (Sara Foster). Throw in some gratuitous shots of surfers in Hawaii and a cameo by Willie Nelson, and you should have something that is entertaining for at least an hour and 20 minutes, right?
Wrong. "The Big Bounce" bills itself as a tale of "who's scamming whom?" and the viewer will ask himself this very question many times during the movie. However, this is mostly because the plot is so hazy and the character development so poor that it is almost impossible to tell who is who in the first place. This made the surprise ending a poor payoff for watching the movie all the way through.
The only actors who get any significant screen time are Wilson and Foster. Wilson plays a bungalow superintendent on a scenic shore in Oahu, Hawaii. He gets hit on by the ladies he fixes showers for and is ultimately seduced and persuaded by Foster's character into stealing some money for them. Wilson plays his beach bum role very well.
Foster appears nude, in a bikini and partially clothed throughout the movie. As a bonus, the audience not only gets to see her as a long-haired blonde, but also with short black hair in the end. Charlie Sheen delivers a performance that brings three words to mind: "What happened, man?" Freeman plays the bungalow community owner and mentor to Wilson. He delivers one line in which the movie inexplicably tries to make itself religiously satirical: "God is just an imaginary friend for grownups."
The movie carries a PG-13 rating, which robs it of any heavy sexual antics, dirty language or violence that one would expect from a movie of this genre. In the end, not even Jet's single "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" playing over the credits can save this movie.
Only if you are a 12-year-old who wants an anatomy lesson, or you just want to waste 88 minutes and 10 bucks, should you see this movie. In other cases, do not.
